There are many mobile and non-mobile devices such mobile phone, non-mobile phone, non-mobile computers, wireless devices, laptop computers, personal information devices, personal digital/data assistants (PDA), hand-held devices, network appliances, Internet appliances, two-way pagers, etc. that are used on telecommunications networks.
The users of such mobile and non-mobile devices typically pay a service provider for some type of subscription service such as voice, video and/or data services as a subscriber. It is important to the service provider to properly track usage and the subscriber for any services and/or feature a subscriber may use and receive the appropriate revenue for such subscription services.
In many instance, mobile devices are used far away a home area and may be used in another country. If the mobile device is used in another country, the mobile device may connect with a foreign service provider and the foreign service provider will then send a bill such use to the home service provider. For example, a user may travel from the United States to Mexico and connect to a Mexican telephone service. The Mexican telephone service will then bill the corresponding service provider in the United States for use of the telecommunication services and the telecommunications network in Mexico.
A similar situation applies to non-mobile devices when long distance calls or connections are made outside a home area. The long distance connections may be in a different state, the same state, the same country, another country, etc. It a non-home service provider will then bill the home service provider for such services.
In many instances, unintentional and/or intentional mistakes are made in the billing process. A home service provider, any intermediate service providers and ultimately the user of the services may be overcharged or undercharged for the services used.
In other instances users of mobile devices often try multiple ways to fraudulently obtain free services that non-fraudulent users pay a subscription fee for. For example, a fraudulent user may visit a web-site that provides stolen, real or fake credit card numbers or real or fake telephone access card numbers and the numbers with payment of any fees. It is desirable to prevent such fraud.
Thus, there exists a need to automatically audit and reconcile billing data among telecommunications service providers and/or users in one or more countries in real-time to help prevent such fraud.